Danish Projects on Religious Plurality

The Centre for Contemporary Religion (CCR) at Aarhus University is the foremost institution for researching the religious landscape of Denmark. It collects, analyses and disseminates knowledge about contemporary religion and religiosity, both globally and in particular in the Danish context.

Gathering information on religions in Denmark

The centre gives high priority to empirical research and documentation, as well as to theoretical and methodical approaches to the subject matter. The centre is also in contact with other Danish and international universities, and vital part of the plureligion/net.

Two Projects of this institution especially aim to analyse the religious landscape of Denmark: While the Religion in Denmark Project provides an overview of religious groups in Denmark today, the Danish Pluralism Project explores the shifts and changes of the religious landscape. Learn more about the projects on their website.

The Danish case: From state church to religious diversity

The project Religion in Denmark gathers information about approved and recognised religious groups in Denmark. These figures are difficult to get hold of because they have not been included in the data published by Statistics Denmark since 2001. So the project provides the most complete overview of religion in Denmark today.

Religion in Denmark is a resource for use by anyone who wants to know more about the situation of religion in Denmark today – either in media contexts or in connection with teaching and research. The material is collected and published each year in an e-yearbook. A significant number of different religious groups are included, providing the basis for research about religion in Denmark today. The figures in the yearbook regarding membership of religious groups, the number of buildings, religious specialists and religious practice are accompanied by a range of articles providing extra perspectives.

Growing religious diversity in Denmark

The Danish Pluralism Project is a research project hosted and undertaken by the Centre for Contemporary Religion at Aarhus University which documents the growing religious diversity in Denmark. The primary objective of the project is to provide evidence of changes in the religious landscape. This overall mapping of religious groups makes it possible to analyse the way in which religions and religious traditions change and develop within new contexts in relation to both social and cognitive structures.

One aspect of the project involves understanding the background for the growth of new religions and alternative spiritual groups, and interpreting the theological approaches within Christianity that seek to respond to the challenges of this new religious variety.

Knowledge transfer to the media and schools

In addition to its primary research projects, the centre conducts a wide range of communication tasks, for instance in contact with the media and upper-secondary schools. Via the individual researchers the centre publishes research articles and books within the field of contemporary religion, as well as producing electronic resources such as the e-yearbook on religion and other materials.